Banning Inefficient Lighting

Bill 1547 has been introduced to ban the sale of any light bulb that fails to meet the standards of current fluorescent lighting and sets higher lumens per watt over the next 13 years. Higher lumens per watt is a pretty easy standard, because only 10% of an incandescent is manifested as light and the rest is heat.

The ALA, American Lighting Association, supports "gaining a lumens/watt solution versus banning incandescent bulbs" and that they will carefully monitor the Federal bulb.

I do not wish to be political, but incandescent lighting has not changed much since Thomas Edison invented it a long time ago. It is inefficient at best. Ban it and GE, Sylvania and Phillips will actually manufacture a better fluorescent. Since Walmart has started selling compact fluorescents, prices are lower and quality is much improved.

Take a look at the rationale below:

How to...Buy a Double Wall Oven

A wall oven purchase seems to confound consumers. Its actually not that difficult. Most of the post will be for new construction, but a few words about replacement. Wall ovens fit cabinets. 95% of the new ovens purchased are 30" but cabinets are also available in 24, and 27 inch sizes. The wall oven will always fit within that size. Most wall ovens are electric. The predominant gas oven, however, was 38" high and 22" wide and was manufactured between 1960 and 1984.

Now to buy a new wall oven: The appliance business almost mirrors the car business. When a decent feature is developed, it is immediately copied. This is incredibly true for wall ovens. Every double wall oven will have atleast one convection and a decent control package. Jenn-Air, Thermador, DCS and Electrolux fit this description. A good strategy when buying a kitchen suite is to buy a package , because of the consumer rebates. Call me cheap, but manufacturers can rebate up to $1000, and that is enough to sway me in an arena of decent, but similar products.

If you are buying just one, here are a few suggestions:

Frigidaire: Great features and a very decent price:



Bosch: Trendy, European looking and not expensive. The wall oven is slightly smaller, but yes it will fit a turkey"



Wolf: Double convection fans instead of one, retractable control panel and a surprisingly good pizza stone distinguishes this product:



Miele: The MasterChef control is absolutely the easiest panel to utilize convection properly. This company actually manufacturers their own in Germany, employing over 200 people. Miele also boasts a rotisserie, meat probe and an unbelievable track record of quality:




Looking for more information? Take a look at our Electric Cooking Buyers Guide.

How to....... Buy a Light

In the appliance posts, we talk about Viking, Wolf, DCS and Thermador in the ranges as well as Jenn-Air, KitchenAid and Miele. Appliances have similar specifications to a certain degree, and the performance is likewise.

It is exactly the opposite in lighting as there does not seem to be any uniformity in specification or design. Thus, there is a real disparity in quality. Most consumers know generally about appliances. In lighting, however, most people do not know about different companies as well as what to buy and the pitfalls of avoiding bad products. Until now:

Lets take the pendant:



We warranty fixtures for as long as you own your home, because a good fixture should last. It is not that difficult as long as the product has integrity. I am in no way advocating that you need to spend a fortune for decent product, but you just do not need to pay an electrician twice to remove a bad one.

How to...Light Your Kitchen

I saw a woman in the store yesterday, so clearly frustrated with the prospect of lighting her kitchen. Renovation should be fun, but you need to know what you are doing. Lighting a kitchen is much more difficult now. Our parents and grandparents segmented the house to formal living room, kitchen and den. The trend now is to combine two or three of these elements into one great room. This impacts appliance specifications certainly, but more so in lighting design.

To review previous posts, proper lighting encompasses, task, ambient, accent and decorative elements. So lets talk our aforementioned friend off the ledge. Following are basic ideas.

First, for our task element, lets use some recessed lights. We could have used track as well, but recessed seems to be preferred in new construction. We will space them 12-24 inches from the cabinets and 4 to 5 feet apart.



Next lets buy some under counter lighting, which will light the counters(that came off wrong).

Her task light is now complete....



Now I have no idea what the specifications actually are....So lets assume an island in the middle in a larger footprint.

Lets place a semi flush fixture in the middle for ambient (up lighting) that will also serve a decorative function



Then for accent lighting, lets monopoint some 12v track heads at her art....



The decorative/accent pieces are all assumptions, but when starting a lighting plan, specify task first then add the other elements.



If you have a lighting issue, then send me an mailto:steve.sheinkopf@yaleappliance.com